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Age and Interior Choice? Wood, Carbon Fiber, Piano Black?

Age and Interior Choice? Wood, Carbon Fiber, Piano Black?

Submitted by Mocaptain on Wed, 2012-12-05 17:22

I am about to order the performance version and I am torn between ordering the carbon interior vs a wood interior. I know I want the tan leather at least. Advice I have received thus far is that wood tends to be for an older generation yet a bit more luxury where as the carbon fiber is younger and sportier yet not as luxurious. I am curious what others are ordering. Please share your age, interior and if you are ordering the performance model. Also feel free to share your thoughts on the subject in general. I am interested to see if there is a trend on age and interior.

Ryan
35
blue performance tan 21 silver wheels tech pkg.

sunnysailor |
5 dicembre 2012

Hi,
Silver performance, 21 inch wheels, tan interior, lacewood
42 years old female. Didn't like the cf dash. If it had more texture maybe I would
Have purchased cf.

rat8cheese
Non performance was my original thought until I test drove the performance. After the test drive there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to order the performance. No Brainer. See if you can get your hands on a performance test drive.

ALSET |
5 dicembre 2012

I don't want to hijack this thread mocaptain. See my other thread on Performance vs Standard 85kwh...that's my dilemma.

kishdude |
5 dicembre 2012

45 - performance, brown, tan/carbon fiber Interior 21" silver wheels

petero |
5 dicembre 2012

Ryan. Ask 100 people and you will get 100 answers. There is only one correct answer-get what you want! If you can't decide wait until you do know (you are wonderfully young) or you can do what I do. When I am tired of a color I sell the car and go out and buy another color. I'm in my mid 60's and nothing is worth agonizing over... except kidney stones and when I will get my much anticipated "S."

Brian H |
5 dicembre 2012

I wonder what a scatter plot of age vs. colour (darkest to lightest) would look like ...

Mark29 |
5 dicembre 2012

62 - non-performance, blue, tan leather, obeche matte, 19", 85kWh

Liz G |
5 dicembre 2012

Female blue tan piano black. I liked the contrast then the black and tan in the interior.

Bored my husband for 2 hours at the Holbrook store sharing at the diff combinations.

First off, Blue with Tan is a natural choice...Except that my wife's current car (Range Rover) is Blue, with a Tan interior. So for me, that's a bit too matchy. Also, I thought the Model S Tan was a little too warm/red. And finally, I thought the Grey paired nicely with the cream colored fabric on the ceiling liner (and the Grey seats have cream piping that matches it perfectly), as well as with the Matte Obeche wood.

Speaking of which...To me, the Matte Obeche was the ONLY choice. Why? It's as much because I love it as it is that I have problems with all of the other choices. I have always hated overly glossy wood trim in cars, it just looks too plastic-y (And a Tesla rep said the had been complaints about the Glossy Obeche, that it shows every single fingerprint)...The Carbon Fiber looks super cool, but to me I think it's more of a sports car look than a sedan look, even for the Model S (In the Roadster, it looks awesome)...The Lacewood looks a bit cheap to me, and the Piano looks SUPER cheap to me (economy rental car cheap!. On one hand, that's just my opinion...On the other hand, I'm an interior designer and former graphic designer, so I like to think I know a little something about colors, fabrics/materials, and wood/trim detail.

FYI, I have some photos that I took of the Matte Obeche sample with the Grey and Tan leather sample, and the Blue paint sample, I'm happy to email those to you...I hope the photos and this review help you make your decision.

rwang |
5 dicembre 2012

Under 40
obeche wood matte
pearl white
black leather

Brian H |
6 dicembre 2012

Liz G;
That's a Hal of a mistake!

sunnysailor |
6 dicembre 2012

Brian,

I was typing on a phone. Please note the lack of a period and lowercase the "H", which uppercased when I mistakenly hit the return button which started a new line. It should make sense with these corrections. If the CF dash had more texture I might have purchased it.

If I was getting a performance I would have chosen CF. With that in mind I wanted something sleek and at least [i]felt[/i] skewed younger. So I thought the piano black achieved that more so than the others. Just my thoughts. In the end... it's your choice and what makes you happy.

truebeliever |
6 dicembre 2012

42 and 45 (female and male, respectively), non-perf., brown paint, tan leather, lacewood. We would have gone for either of the matte wood options. Liked the higher contrast between the lacewood and the tan. The shiny looks plastic-y to us and would get really smeary looking without constant touch ups. Also, I like the quality of texture that the lacewood has. The cf is totally uninteresting to 42 (just looks plastic with a pattern on it) and looks kind of cool to 45 (unavailable for comment). I agree it might be more appealing with some texture.

Note: According to our observations of recent test drive cars in Menlo Park, and of recent car recipients on the Teslamotorsclub forum, the tan leather is much paler than what is shown on the Design Studio. I've seen comments that it's close to white and pretty much matches the cream colored headliner. I don't know if you've seen the dash options in real life... seeing them in a car is very helpful!

steve |
6 dicembre 2012

I was going to go with P85 Blue, Tan interior and Obeche wood gloss. Now that there is the red I'm thinking P85 Red, Black leather (it's very OCD of me but I didn't want to choose black leather because the red liner didn't match the car) and carbon fiber. So now it's Blue Hwy. 101 cruiser feel or sporty young rocket.
Chase - Age 23; #3,707

mklcolvin |
6 dicembre 2012

54 (was 52 when I ordered) - Blue, tan w/ Obeche gloss

Aleksandyr |
6 dicembre 2012

38. green performance, grey leather and CF. I couldn't resist the CF since it is so sporty and goes well with the performance theme. I retracted my deposit for the roadster and have been waiting for 2 years for the S. Just didn't make sense to get a two seater with three kids. Best of both worlds, sport sedan than functions for the family!

nickjhowe |
6 dicembre 2012

Pearl White performance with tan leather and carbon fibre accents.

jkirkebo |
6 dicembre 2012

40 - performance, blue/grey, carbon fibre, 21" grey wheels.

I hate wood in cars, piano black would have been my choice in a non-perf., but I'd then rather have matte black or brushed aluminium.

With the carbon fiber accents already on the car, I thought this was a good combo.

Considered the wood, but to me it looked very contemporary, and I find that anything that is contemporary now looks dated at some point in the future. (Think avacado green kitchen appliances.) The same could be said for CF, perhaps, so as others have said it really is a preference issue. IMHO the piano black was too plain and plastic-y, so I had to choose between the CF and the wood, and finally decided that the CF looked more appropriate for a performance car.

Good luck!

dborn @nsw.au |
6 dicembre 2012

The alternative for those not really sure, and those that may prefer something different to what is on offer, any of the gloss finished choices, and then vinyl film wrap at any time to change the appearance. There is an almost endless choice of designs in films, including a textured carbon fibre....
Can even be considered for the sill panels all round - which is something i am considering - therefore even a standard spec sig could have a carbon fibre interior if you choose... even there, there are a range of carbon fibres.....

dborn @nsw.au |
6 dicembre 2012

The alternative for those not really sure, and those that may prefer something different to what is on offer, any of the gloss finished choices, and then vinyl film wrap at any time to change the appearance. There is an almost endless choice of designs in films, including a textured carbon fibre....
Can even be considered for the sill panels all round - which is something i am considering - therefore even a standard spec sig could have a carbon fibre interior if you choose... even there, there are a range of carbon fibres.....

Mocaptain |
6 dicembre 2012

So far, great feedback. Thanks everyone. Its looking roughly 2/3 of the performance buyers are going with Carbon Fiber. Non Carbon Fiber is trending with mostly obeche matte and several piano black. I noticed no trend in age too which is great. All great comments. Keep them coming.

btw...in person, the colors are much different. Tan is lighter, blue exterior is darker etc.

I think the gloss obeche works really well to tie together the dark grey/black above the dash with the tan leather below. Wood has been in cars forever and probably will be forever. My only issue with this is whether it says "town car luxury" a bit too much. But Elon got it, so there you have it.

The carbon fiber is nice in many respects but I think it really loses definition at angles and the effect just simply gets lost unless you're looking at it fairly straight on (I started a separate thread seeking input on this from people who have actually taken delivery with the CF so please comment there if you have!!). I also worry that it's a bit too "in" and it's trying too hard to make a fast 4-door sedan into a track-worthy 2-seat sportscar with a big engine.

The matte obeche is nice, I guess I just like how the gloss brings out the color more to tie into the tan leather I'm getting. If I weren't getting tan, I'd be more tempted to get matte.

EDH AL |
12 dicembre 2012

64 -- performance, brown/tan, 21" silver wheels, carbon fiber interior details (just like kishdude). FYI, when ordering in September I was told CF is only available on Performance S, which arguably is a nice cue that you're driving a P85.